Safety delivery-receptacle.



A. I. KENNEDY.

SAFETY DELIVERY RECEPT/ISLE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. I0. I9I6.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

l @lfare Eric ANDREW J. KENNEDY, oE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SAFETY DELIVERY-RECEPTACLE.

Speoioaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 13, 1917.

Application led January 10, 1916. Serial No. 71,233..

To all whom may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW J. KENNEDY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Delivery- Receptacles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to safety delivery receptacles of that type commonly known as wall cabinets which are, designed to facilitate the safel delivery of goods, such as groceries, milk and the like at residences and apartments at times when the occupants thereof may be absent and delivery of the goods within the premises may be impossible. More specifically, my present invention relates to improvements in that type of such delivery receptacles as are mounted in an outer wall of thebuilding, and are themselves equipped with an outer door that is self-locking when the goods have been placed in the box and the door swung to closed position, and is automatically unlocked or released when the goods are withdrawn from the receptacle from the inside. F or obvious reasons wall cabinets or receptacles of this character are highly useful and advantageous in facilitating the safe delivery of goods and preventing petty thieving thereof from back porches that is prevalent in large cities.

Nall cabinets of this character are going into quite extensive use, especially in apartment buildings; and one object of the present invention is to provide such a cabinet wherein the elements of simplicity of structure, economy of cost and effectiveness and reliability of operation shall be combined in a superior degree as compared with the best devices of this character now known. Another object is to provide a construction in cabinets employing a counter balanced false bottom to effect automatic locking and unlocking of the, outer door wherein the counter balancing device shall have the further functionand advantage of affording a strengthening and reinforcing means for the false bottom to prevent any deformation of the latter under the weight of heavy parcels.

In the accompanying drawing I have illustrated one practical and approved form in which my present invention may be embodied, and referring thereto- Figure l is an outer end elevation of the cabinet.

Fig. 9.

same.

F ig. 3 is a horizontal plan section.

Fig. et is a vertical longitudinal section.

Referring to the drawings, 5 designates as an entirety a rectangular sheet metal box body that is open at its opposite ends and in `practice is designed to be set in and transversely of a.. building wall such, for instance, as the rear wall of a kitchen. The ends of the box body are preferably provided with marginal facings 6 and 7 conveniently formed by folding the edge portions of the top, bottom and side walls upon each other. To the vinner end of the box body is applied a door 8 preferably mounted to swing horizontally on vertical hinges 9, and to the outer or receiving end of the box body is applied an outer door 10 hinged at its upper edge as shown at 1l to swing vertically.

12 designates a false bottom consisting of a flat metal plate substantially coextensive with the permanent bottom of the box7 which false bottom is hinged to the permanent bottom at the end thereof which is adjacent to the inner door 8. A simple and inexpensive hinge construction for the false bottom comprises a down-turned flange 13 on the end of the false bottom that lies between vertical and inclined keeper strips 14. and 15 secured to the permanent bottom of the box, the false bottomv resting upon the upper edge of the inclined keeper strip 15 and the space between said keeper strips being sufficient to permit the necessary play of the iiange 13 under the limited swinging movement of the false bottom.

Secured tothe permanent bottom, between its center and its outer end is a fulcrum strip 16 that may conveniently consist of a suitable length of angle iron, and resting upon the upper edge of the fulcrum strip 16 is a false bottom supporting member herein consisting of a fiat thin metal plate 17 of the full width of the false bottom and, as herein shown, approximately two-thirds the length of the latter. This plate 17 is confined against endwise movement by a pair of angle iron keeper strips is an inner end elevation of the 18 secured to the underside thereof, their depending portions lying on either side of the fulcrum strip 16. The shorter portion of the plate 17 on one side of the fulcrum supportingly engages the false bottom 12 a slight distance inwardly of its free edge, while the longer portion of the plate 17 on the other side of the fulcrum serves as a counterweight that is just sufficient to maintain the false bottom when empty in elevated position as shown in Fig. 1. 1Nhen a package or parcel is placed upon the false bottom 12 its weight suffices to overcome the counterweight and the plate 17 thereupon rocks `until its upper surface comes in full contact with the lower surface of the false bottom directly thereabove, whereupon the plate 17 forms astop to arrest further depression of the false bottom 12. The false bottom 12 is provided at its free edge with a downturned flange 19 in the nature' of a hook that, when the false bottom is fully depressed is engaged by a hook 2O on the lower end of the outer door 10, said hook having an inclined or cam shaped face 21 that causes it to automatically engage with the hook or flange 19 when the false bottom is depressed and the outer door 10 swung to closed position. l/Vhen the parts are thus engaged it is impossible to open the door 10 since the keeper strip 12 and flange 13 prevent endwise movement of the false bottom under an outward pull on the door 10. vWhen the inner door 8 is opened and the package removed, the counter-balancing plate 17 automatically raises the false bottom, disengaging the hooks 19 and and thereby unlocking the outer door 10 for the subsequent reception of goods or packages.

The described device, `by employing a properly counterbalanced relation between the false bottom and its weighted supporting member may be made extremely sensitive so that it will be operated, even by eX- tremely light parcels weighing only an ounce or two, and any object heavy enough to operate the false bottom at all will operate it fully into locking position, in which respect my counterbalancing device 1s superior to springs for this purpose, the resistance of which is variable'throughout the lowering movement of the false bottom. A further advantage of the described construction resides in the strengthening and reinforcing effect which the plate 17 affords to the false bottom 12 when the latter is depressed under the weight of a heavy package or parcel that might otherwise have a tendency to bend or deform the false bottom. It will further be noted that both the false bottom and its fulcrumed supporting member are readily removed for cleaning purposes by simply lifting them out of the box body, thus making the entire structure highly sanitary by reason of the facility with which it may be cleaned. Without limiting myself to the precise details herein shown and described,-

l claim:

1.In a safety delivery receptacle, thetom of the cabinet, the portion of said member on one side of the fulcrum engaging the underside of the false bottom and the portion of said member on the other side of the fulcrum serving as a counterweight to maintain the false bottom when empty in elevated position, a door on the Areceiving end of the cabinet, and coperating doorlocking members on said door and false bottom, operative when the latter is in depressed position and inoperative when it is in elevated position;

2. 1n a safety delivery receptacle, the combination with a cabinet having opposite open ends for the reception and delivery of goods, and doors guarding said open ends, of a depressible false bottom, hinged at one edge Within the cabinet adjacent to the delivery end thereof and extending substantially to the receiving end, a false bottom supporting member fulcrumed at unequal distances from its ends on the' bottom of the cabinet, the shorter portion of said member on one side of the fulcrum engaging the underside of the false bottom and the longer portion of said member on the other side of the fulcrum serving as a counterweight to maintain the .false bottom when empty in elevated position, and cooperating door-locking members on the door at the receiving end and on the adjacent end of the false bottom, operative when the latter is in depressed position and inoperative when it is in elevated position.

3. In a safety delivery receptacle, the combination with a cabinet having opposite open ends for the reception and delivery of goods, and doors guarding said open ends, of a depressible false bottom hinged at one edge within the cabinet adjacent to the delivery end thereof and extending substantially to the receiving end, a false bottoml supporting plate Vof substantially the width of the false bottom fulcrumed at unequal distances from its ends on the bottom of the cabinet, the shorter portion of said plate on one side of the fulcrum engaging the under side of the false bottom between the center and the free edge of the latter and the longer portion of said plate on the other side of the fulcrum serving as a counterweight to just overbalance the weight of the false bottom resting on said shorter portion, whereby, when the false bottom is loaded, the plate rocks on its fulcrum into full surface contact with the under side of the false bottom and reinforces the latter, and cooperating door-locking members on the door at the receiving end and on the adjacent free edge of the false bottom operative when the latter is in depressed position and inoperative when it is in elevated position.

4. In a safety delivery7 receptacle, the combination with a cabinet having opposite open ends for the reception and delivery of goods, and doors guarding said open ends, of a depressible false bottom hinged at one edge on the bottom of the cabinet adjacent to the delivery end thereof and substantially coextensive With and overlying the bottom e of the cabinet, a false bottom supporting plate of substantially the width of the false bottom fulcrumed at unequal distances from its ends on the bottom of the cabinet between the center and the receiving end of u the latter, the shorter portion of said plate on one side of the fulcrurn engaging the underside of the false bottom a short distance inwardly of the free edge of the latter and the longer portion of said plate on the other side of the fulcrum serving as a countervveight to just overbalance the Weight of the false bottom resting on said shorter portion, whereby, When the false bottom is loaded, the plate rocks on its fulcrum into full surface contact with the underside of the false bottom and reinforces the latter, and coperating hooks on the door at the receiving end and on the adjacent free edge of the false bottom, said hooks automatically engaging with each other when the false bottom is depressed and the door closed, and automatically disengaging when the false bottom is elevated.

ANDREV J. KENNEDY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D; C. 

